In Orbit, by Kim-An Lieberman

"These final poems are wild, stirring, devastating. You should read them if you want someone to wake up your heart."—Ken Chen, Executive Director, The Asian American Writers' Workshop

We recently lost a poet and friend at Blue Begonia Press. In December of 2013, Kim-An Lieberman passed away from cancer at the age of 39.

In Orbit, Kim-An Lieberman's second collection of poems, is now available. There will be a community reading to honor her poetry and spirit hosted by Jack Straw Production in early May. We'll update the place and time as details are finalized.

In Orbit

Kim-An Lieberman
You can order a copy of
In Orbit here: 



Kim-An Lieberman's  poems reach back to her roots in Vietnam and forward into her children's future, possibly without her, articulating the complicated dance among fate, choice and chance. In Orbit gives witness to an enduring connection to history and family, reminding us that "Even when we rinse the soil free, the long roots hold." —Elizabeth Austen

Kim-An Lieberman is a poet of speculation, a poet who knows that seemingly immutable forces like history and death are not static abstractions but imaginary states that we ourselves can dream and contest. In Orbit begins with Lieberman re-imagining anti-Chinese riots in Seattle and the lives of her Vietnamese migrant family and ends with what might in another poet seem to be the end of imagination: her own experience with cancer. These final poems are wild, stirring, devastating. You should read them if you want someone to wake up your heart. —Ken Chen

 

We have also received a second printing of first book, Breaking the Map (2008).
You can order Breaking the Map's second printing here: 

 





About the Author:

Kim-An Lieberman was a writer of Vietnamese and Jewish American descent, born in Rhode Island and raised in the Pacific Northwest. She studied at the University of Washington before earning a Ph.D. in English from the University of California, Berkeley. The author of one previous poetry collection, Breaking the Map (Blue Begonia, 2008), she also spent many years teaching literature and writing in kindergarten through college classrooms. Kim-An was diagnosed with late-stage gastric cancer in 2011 at the age of 38. She died in 2013.